Many types of strain or injuries have been known to be associated with footwear which provides inadequate support or support which is poorly tailored to a particularly wearer of the footwear. While custom orthotics are known for attempting to correct the inadequacies of support to the wearer, known footwear is generally too constrained to provide proper space for a proper orthotic insole and does not provide sufficient insole variance to address the needs of wearers of the footwear.
Dimensions of shoe lasts generally have not changed since the beginnings of mass production of shoes and footwear in general. Many accommodations have been made to the outsoles for various activities including various durometers of materials, thicker and more textured bottom surfaces of the outsoles and variations to the overall shape thereof, but none of these variations to the outsoles permit any customization in the end product for suiting a particular user.
Any known removable inserts which might be customized are limited to the dimensions provided by conventional size shoe lasts which limit the size of the inserts, particularly at the metatarsal region. This limitation in thickness also in turn limits the material durometer which can be used effectively within this limited space as thicker materials are required to be considerably compressed if the user's foot is to be received comfortably within conventional footwear formed from standard size shoe lasts.